


Regarding Jack

by celedan



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alien Technology, Developing Relationship, M/M, Temporary Amnesia, inspired by supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22282087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celedan/pseuds/celedan
Summary: After a blackout, Jack doesn't know what he did last night. At first, Ianto is irritated, but then, he starts to worry when Jack becomes more and more forgetful. While trying to solve the mystery about Jack's lost night, the Captain slowly forgets who he is.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 10
Kudos: 92





	Regarding Jack

**Author's Note:**

> This story was (very strongly, at least for the first part of the story) inspired by the Supernatural episode “Regarding Dean” (Season 12, Episode 11) where Dean gets cursed by a sorcerer, and starts to forget things. At first, it's funny, but eventually, the situation becomes more serious and emotional when he is in danger of completely forgetting who he is while Sam tries to save him.

Writing up his latest report, Ianto hammered at the keys with slightly more force than necessary. At least forceful enough to raise Tosh's anger if she caught him at it. But she wasn't here yet. Neither was Owen. He didn't want to get started on Gwen, he thought with bad grace.

But he didn't feel any remorse about his unkind thoughts nor about his treatment of Torchwood property. He was much too agitated from the night before.

His sister had forced him to come to her birthday party. And although he'd tried to weasel out of going, even though he was feeling bad about even attempting to, she hadn't accepted any of his excuses. And Jack, the traitor, had backed Rhian up, giving Ianto the evening off. While Ianto had dutifully resigned himself to his fate, Jack had fun with whatever alien he could chase through Cardiff. Ianto really would have preferred to go Weevil hunting with the older man than having to endure his insufferable brother-in-law or his sister's gossiping friends who all had a sister, or cousin, or friend with whom they wanted to set up Rhian's little brother.

Irritated, Ianto fished his mobile from his jacket as it suddenly started ringing obnoxiously. He frowned, becoming more irritated when he didn't recognise the number.

“Ianto, it's me!” Jack's voice reached his ear after he had taken the call.

Ianto frowned once more, now more puzzled than irritated. “Who's mobile is this, Jack?” he asked. “And what happened? I tried to call you.”

“Ehm...” Jack laughed a little sheepishly. “As for your first question, I've borrowed a jogger's mobile here in... some park. I don't know where I am. And second, my mobile as well as my coms are broken, simply fried, and third, I have no idea what happened.”

Ianto was stunned into silence for a moment. He blinked owlishly while he tried to digest Jack's information.

“Okay, ask the owner of the phone where you are,” Ianto ordered, taking charge which made him feel better immediately. 

He heard some mumbling, and a slightly irritated sounding answer.

“Bute Park,” Jack then declared proudly.

“All right, listen, there's a café at the east entrance. I'll pick you up there.”

“Great, I'm hungry anyway,” Jack agreed happily. “Ianto?”

“Yes?”

“Where is east?”

Ianto suddenly had the nagging thought that maybe something was very wrong here.

After ordering Jack to ask the jogger to give him directions, he hurried from the Hub and down into the underground garage to his car. In only a few minutes, Ianto had reached Bute Park and the small café he had in mind. He hoped Jack had found his way there.

The unmistakable greatcoat was the first thing he spied as he entered the café. Feeling more relieved than he wanted to admit, he made his way over to Jack.

Watching the Captain gingerly who shovelled food into his mouth, Ianto sat next to him.

“Hi.” Jack beamed at him, his cheeks stuffed full with scrambled eggs and bacon like a hamster. “Want some?”

Ianto shook his head, but nonetheless picked at a slice of bacon he started to nibble on.

“Are you all right?” he asked, still scrutinising Jack carefully.

“Sure. Was only hungry.” Jack grinned brightly before more eggs disappeared into his mouth. 

Ianto rolled his eyes good-naturedly at his boss's messy eating habits, but nicked another piece of bacon from Jack's plate to stop himself from reaching for the napkins and wiping Jack's greasy chin like an overbearing mother.

“You eat like a pregnant woman.” He froze with a strip of bacon halfway to his mouth. “You aren't pregnant, are you?” It had been meant as a joke, but with Torchwood, and Jack, who knew... 

Jack waved his hand dismissively, and had the nerve to grin at Ianto's shocked expression.

“Not that I know.”

“Good, good,” Ianto mumbled, and pushed the bacon into his mouth. “But what happened, Jack?” 

“I really don't know,” Jack confessed with a sigh and a shrug. “I only remember that I wanted to go out hunting while you were at your sister's. And then, I woke up in Bute Park this morning.”

Ianto frowned. “You remember that I was at my sister's, but you don't remember what you did yourself?”

“No.”

Once more, Ianto let his eyes roam over Jack's form. “You look a little worse for wear. Especially the poor coat.” Ianto groaned inwardly.

“And I've got a slight headache.”

That made Ianto frown even more. Jack never had a headache, not even the sex-reluctant fake ones (as if that would ever happen anyway; Captain Jack Harkness being not in the mood was unheard of).

And why wasn't the Captain more worried about losing a whole night? For a normal person alone this would be cause to worry, but with Torchwood, the possibilities what could have happened were endless. And Jack of all people was very touchy concerning memory loss as Ianto had learned a few weeks ago when Jack had confided into him about losing two years of memories in the past.

Deciding to drop Jack off with Owen as soon as possible, and for God's sake, stop worrying for the time being, Ianto stood up.

“Okay, come on. Since you seem all right, apart from a black-out, we gotta go.”

“Go? Where?” Jack looked at him with big eyes.

Ianto really dreaded the rest of the day.

“We have a meeting with the mayor in forty minutes,” Ianto patiently reminded Jack while he tried to steer the Captain away from the rest of his breakfast.

“Ah, I remember. It's about covering up all the casualties by Weevil.” Relieved, Jack gifted Ianto with a bright smile.

But the younger man didn't look very happy himself. Instead, he stared at Jack with wide, alarmed eyes. “Ehm, no. That was your appointment with the police chief last week.” He grasped Jack's shoulder to stop and face him.

“Are you drunk!?” That, at least, would make the current situation so much easier. 

“No!” Jack looked at little lost all of a sudden, scratching his head. “Well, I don't think I am.” 

Shaking his head incredulously, Ianto gave Jack's shoulder a slight push to get him moving again. But once more, their exit was delayed as suddenly, a young woman barred their way. She smiled at Jack. “Hey,” she said.

Jack being Jack immediately went into flirt-mode. “Hey. And you are?”

The woman's beaming smile slipped from her faze as if in slow-motion. Instead, her mouth hung open unattractively as she stared at Jack.

Before either of the two men could do anything, she slapped him soundly on the cheek.

“Ow!” Jack cried, and theatrically held his stinging cheek. “What was that for?!”

Since Ianto really didn't want to know, he decidedly steered Jack around the seething woman, gave her a polite, apologetic smile, and left the café as fast as he could get Jack to move.

Ignoring his boss's whining of wanting to drive and about a stinging cheek, Ianto let himself fall into the driver's seat in relief. He closed his eyes for a moment to get his bearings, completely blocking out Jack's nattering about the nerve of that woman, and why wasn't he allowed to drive, and about that stupid meeting with the mayor.

That made Ianto snap open his eyes again. He turned to Jack.

“I don't think it's a good idea to let you go to that meeting.”

“What?! Why?” Jack pursed his lips in affront. 

“Jack,” Ianto tried to stay calm and reasonable. “We still don't know what happened to you, and frankly, you don't look presentable enough for a meeting with the mayor.”

Jack made a dismissive noise. “As if I care what state my clothes are in. And I'm fine.”

“This is Torchwood,” Ianto tried to argue, slowly losing his patience with Jack's stubbornness. “We can't take an incident like this lightly. Even if it's about you.” Especially when it's about you, but that was a thought Ianto didn't speak out loud since it would maybe give a little too much insight into his feelings. 

Sighing, Jack's shoulders slumped. “Okay, maybe you're right there.” He suddenly turned puppy-eyes on to Ianto. “And since I'm a good boy, placing that stupid meeting in your capable hands, will you at least let me drive?”

Ianto resisted that look for a moment, glaring at Jack impassively, but eventually, he nodded. Without arguing what a child Jack was, he vacated the driver's seat, and they swept places. Reluctantly, he handed over his car keys.

“You can drop me off at the, ehm, the base before you go to your meeting,” Jack told Ianto absent-mindedly while he fiddled with the car keys.

Unnerved, Ianto gently pulled the keys from Jack's hands since it was apparent that he didn't know which key was the ignition key. “This one,” he said softly, and handed Jack the correct key.

“Sure.” Jack beamed at him, and started the car. 

During the short drive back to the Hub, Ianto's worries increased so much that he was on the verge of cancelling the meeting with the mayor for good since he didn't want to leave Jack's side for even one minute until he knew what was going on.

Luckily, Jack didn't have any more memory losses – like forgetting to stop at a red light for example – until they were at the Hub in one piece.

Not caring that he would be late for the meeting, Ianto accompanied Jack into the Hub, and immediately steered for the autopsy bay.

“Where've you been?” Owen snarked at him in greeting. “I'm dying here without coffee.”

“You know where the instant coffee is,” Ianto snapped back distractedly. Urgently, he pulled Owen away from his current project.

“Wha...”

“Shut up and listen. I want you to give Jack a thorough examination.”

Owen scrunched up his nose. “I'm not keen on being dragged into your sick sex practices.”

“Owen!”

The doctor stared at Ianto for a moment before he realised how serious the other man was. “What happened?”

“I don't know. But something isn't right.”

In clipped tones, he explained what had happened this morning. With every word Ianto said, Owen's face got grimmer and grimmer.

In the end, the doctor nodded curtly. “Go to that meeting. Take Tosh. I'll get Jack down here. We'll find out what happened.”

Ianto nodded, relieved. “Thanks.”

He jogged back up the stairs, right into Jack's arms.

“There you are,” the Captain smiled. “I wondered where you were. What would you say to having breakfast with me?”

“You just had breakfast, remember? And I have to go. The meeting with the mayor.”

“Of course I had breakfast already, but I thought it would be nice to go out together,” Jack smiled, expertly covering up his slip. 

Ianto smiled at him a little strained. “Maybe later. I've got to go now.”

“Okay. See you later.”

“Sure. And take a shower!” Ianto called over his shoulder as he made his way through the Hub to Tosh's work station. 

While asking her to accompany him, grateful that she didn't ask any questions as Gwen would have done, he heard Owen's voice in the background, ordering Jack to come with him.

Slightly more relieved than before, Ianto left the Hub with Tosh in tow.

He was so glad that the meeting was over. Although it hadn't taken up much time, Ianto had been sick with nerves and worry on the inside despite his calm and professional outward appearance.

On the way back to the Hub, he filled Tosh in on their problem, and she immediately promised to try to trail Jack's way the previous evening through CCTV as soon as they were back.

Tosh got to it immediately the second they returned, calming Ianto down somewhat that she was now taking matters into her capable hands, but when Owen approached him, the look on the doctor's face was enough to scatter Ianto's optimism like dust in the wind.

“There's nothing wrong with him,” Owen promptly declared.

Ianto pressed his lips together in irritation. “That can't be. You should have seen him, Owen. He forgot which key was for the car, for God's sake!”

The doctor shrugged. “Be that as it may, physically, there is nothing wrong with him. And believe me, I did  _every_ test we have at our disposal.”

The grave, knowing expression in Owen's eyes was the only thing stopping Ianto from a scathing remark because in that moment, he remembered what Owen had confessed during a drunken bout when Jack had abandoned the team for the Doctor: Katy.

Ianto nodded curtly, realising that a person being dear to Owen suddenly showing signs of forgetfulness must affect the acerbic doctor much harder than he would ever admit.

“Maybe I can shed some light on the situation,” Tosh suddenly chimed in. the two men almost stumbled over their own feet in their haste to join Tosh in front of her computer. 

“I found him on the CCTV around Bute Park. He roamed the streets for a while,” she explained, showing them CCTV image after image that showed Jack prowling the streets. “Eventually, he went into this pub.” She showed them a stand-still of a rather flashy pub not far from Bute Park, its neon signs shining brightly in the otherwise dark night. “No CCTV inside,” Tosh pre-empted Owen's question just as he opened his mouth.

“Maybe we can trigger his memory when he sees that pub,” Ianto mused. “Jack!”

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Ianto called his name again.

Growing uneasy, he looked at Owen. “Where is he?”

“I left him in the autopsy bay when you came back.”

Ianto frowned at that. Surely, Jack wouldn't remain down there when his team had returned. Feeling as if he had swallowed a rock that now sat heavily in his stomach, Ianto made his way to the autopsy bay. Warily, he looked down into the bay.

“Jack?!” he called, and only then did the Captain register that it was him who was addressed. Blinking, he looked up to Ianto, and abandoned the medical tech he had been fiddling with in obvious fascination. He looked confused for a moment longer, but then, his face brightened. 

“Ianto!” he exclaimed, and dropped the device onto the desk in front of him with a noisy clatter. “Didn't hear you come back.” 

He swaggered up the steps until he had reached Ianto, pressing close to him. But the younger man weaselled out of Jack's advances, and instead grasped him by the elbow.

“We have to show you something,” he explained while leading Jack over to Tosh's work station. “Maybe that triggers your memory of last night.”

Nodding, Jack let Tosh show him the CCTV she discovered, but he shook his head no to every picture she showed him.

“Sorry,” he said. “I don't remember being there.”

The other three looked at each other with new worry.

In that moment, the alarm sounded, and the cogdoor rolled away to reveal the last of their team.

“Gwen,” Owen called innocently. “Good of you to join us so early.”

Gwen bristled at that, but jogged up to them. “I had some things to take care of for the wedding. I coordinated with Jack beforehand. Tell him, Jack.”

Jack looked unsure confronted with her demanding, expecting gaze for a moment before he plastered on a charming smile, and shrugged. “Sure, of course.”

“You're not the most reliable source at the moment,” Ianto mumbled. “I could raise all our pay cheques, and you wouldn't even notice the difference.”

Over Owen's “Good idea”, Gwen barked out a confused “What's that mean? What's going on here?!”

“Nothing, Gwen,” Jack smiled. “They're just a little overcautious.”

“This is serious, Jack,” Tosh said grimly. “Don't you see that you forget things more and more?!”

“Forgetting things?!” Gwen gasped, cutting off any excuse Jack may have had to Tosh's objections.

“Yeah, he can't remember a thing he did last night, and he's starting to forget things from one second to the next,” Owen explained with none of his usual sarcasm.

“B-but...” Gwen looked from one of her colleagues to the other with wide, doleful eyes. “But we have to do something! Jack!” She marched over to him, and grasped his upper arms. “Are you alright? How are you feeling?”

Smiling indulgingly at Gwen, Jack pried her hands from his biceps, and gently squeezed them in his much bigger ones. “I'm fine, Gwen. Really.”

Silently grinding his teeth, Ianto turned away from the sickeningly sweet scene, and grasped the keys of the SUV. “Come on, Jack,” he snapped. “We're going to that pub, and try to find out what you did there last night.”

“Oh, I can go there with him,” Gwen immediately offered, and turned her oh so innocent doe-eyes onto Ianto.

“Thanks, Gwen, but I can handle it. Just track down some witnesses for now.”

Gwen opened her mouth to protest that, since she had been the cop, therefore had the necessary training interrogating witnesses, but Ianto didn't wait for her very obvious objections.

But since he couldn't trust Jack to follow his suggestions in his current condition, and since Ianto didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Gwen Cooper should Jack declare that he wanted her to come to the pub with him rather than Ianto, he had to resort to bigger guns.

“We can have some lunch in that small café after we've finished,” he offered Jack with a smile. “Their waffles looked fantastic this morning.”

Jack beamed at that, and simply dropped Gwen's hands from his grip. “Oh yeah, told you they looked good.”

Ianto hid a smug smile when Jack came bounding after him like an eager puppy, and he really tried to feel at least a bit bad about such underhanded tactics. But the remorse just wouldn't come, so he simply let it drop, unconcerned.

With mixed feelings about what they would uncover – if anything at all – in that pub, Ianto led Jack inside.

Because of the early hour, not many patrons were around. Ianto's heart sank.

His hopes turned up though, when he, unexpectedly, spotted the young woman from the café, the one who had, well, so very strongly shown her opinion of Jack.

He nudged Jack in the site, and indicated the woman. Jack needed a moment until he recognised her vaguely, but then, he looked at Ianto a little lost.

“She knew you this morning,” Ianto explained patiently. “Maybe she can tell us more about what you did last night.”

“Oh, yeah. That's a good idea.” Jack smiled, relieved that they may have a trace now.

Gingerly, since he didn't want to make a closer acquaintance with her fist himself, Ianto advanced on the young woman.

She spotted them when they were only a few feet away, and her face fell, her pretty eyes flashing like lightning amidst dark thunderclouds.

“You!” she hissed, and excused herself from her friends for a moment. Glaring, she drew herself up to her inconsiderable height in front of Jack, and stemmed her fists into her hips. “Who do you think you are, hm? Acting as if you don't know me this morning. You think you're too good for me or what?! And now you come crawling back here, but let me tell you, I have some pride left. So, piss off!”

“No, no, please,” Ianto tried to mediate. “This isn't what it looks like.”

Now it was him who found himself subjected to her fierce gaze. “No? What does it look like to you?”

Sighing heavily, Ianto brushed a hand through his hair, trying to come up with a suitable explanation. Before he hadn't appeased the woman somewhat, she would never be willing to tell them anything.

“I'm sure you two had a lovely time together last night,” he started, and tried not to growl in jealousy, “but he really can't remember you. Someone must have put something in his drink. And now, we're trying toretrace what happened last night. So, please, if you know something, tell us.”

The young woman's eyebrows rose almost to her hairline as she stared at the two men with wide disbelieving eyes. Then, she snorted. “That's an excuse I haven't heard before. You expect me to believe that?”

“It's true,” Jack chimed in for the first time. He shrugged helplessly. “What reason would I have to deny knowing someone so beautiful?”

Ianto groaned inwardly, but, to his amazement, the woman frowned, suddenly not so sure any more.

“Yeah,” she mumbled while blushing slightly despite herself under Jack's completely genuine sounding compliment and the earnest kicked puppy-eyes he was giving her, “you weren't that sloshed last night, were you...” She suddenly started twirling a lock of her dark brown hair between a finger in a coy manner, peeking shyly at Jack. “I'm Emma by the way.”

“Jack Harkness, hi,” Jack beamed at her, and grasped her hand to press a kiss onto the back, causing the woman to break out in a little-schoolgirl-giggle while blushing to her roots.

Composing herself somewhat after a few seconds again, she exchanged another look with Ianto. “He really can't remember a thing?”

“No. This is a really disturbing situation for him. Please, help us.”

Emma's eyebrows rose once more, but this time in dawning horror. “Oh, you poor thing!” she exclaimed, rushing up to Jack to wrap him into her arms soothingly, patting and caressing his back like a mother her distressed child.

A little startled at first, Jack then melted into the embrace, and grinned at Ianto smugly over the woman's shoulder, basking in her compassion. Ianto just rolled his eyes.

“This is so horrible,” Emma said when she let go of Jack again. “Of course I'll help you.”

“Great. Then, can you tell us anything about last night? Any detail could help us.”

“Ehm, yeah...” She frowned in concentration. “He came in at ten in the night. I was here having a drink with my friends, celebrating taking our exams, you see.”

“Congratulations,” Ianto smiled politely which she answered with a beaming smile.

“We saw him at the bar, and, well...” She giggled at that like a little school girl.

Oh yes, Ianto thought, she really didn't have to elaborate further.

“Had some drinks together, and he told us some stories.” At that, she blushed heavily, and Ianto could only imagine the nature of those stories.

She turned to Jack now, cocking her head. “But suddenly, you jumped up. You said you'd spotted someone you'd been looking for, and then, you rushed out through the back exit. Are you two with the police or something?”

“Something like that, yeah,” Ianto smiled blandly.

Both of them then looked closely at Jack.

“Do you remember any of that?”

The Captain frowned heavily as he tried to recall the situation that had been described to him. Eventually, he shook his head though. “No, sorry. There's nothing.”

Ianto sighed in disappointment, while Emma soothingly rubbed Jack's arm.

“Do you think he'll get better?” she asked Ianto, concern clearly written in her face. “Is there some medicine that could help him?”

“Thanks for worrying, but I'm sure he will get better. Our medic is the best, he'll come up with something.” Ianto was amazed that his nose didn't fall off for the white lie. “We have to go now,” he added hastily since it looked like Emma wanted to comfort Jack some more who didn't seem in any way averse to the idea.

“Oh,” she made, disappointed. “Of course. I hope you get better.” She smiled at Jack warmly who smiled back.

“Thanks. I hope so, too.”

Grasping Jack's upper arm, Ianto determinedly steered him into the back of the pub, impatiently steamrolling over the irritated staff there with a curt “This is a Torchwood investigation, please stand back” since he was in no mood for any lengthy discussions with inane people.

Followed by Jack, the younger man burst through a heavy metal door that squeaked in its hinges when opened. The two men found themselves in a dank side alley leading onto the main street. But apart from a few bin containers, there was nothing here. Especially nothing unusual.

Ianto's heart skipped a beat when he spied a CCTV camera on the other side of the street that pointed directly at the entrance of the alley at the back of the pub.

“Tosh?” Ianto activated his comms. 

“What have you got?”

“There's CCTV behind the pub. On the opposite side of the street. Can you pull up the feed and send it to my PDA? Apparently, Jack chased someone out the back of the pub.”

“Of course. And... here we go.”

“Thanks, Tosh.”

Together with Jack, Ianto watched the grainy surveillance video from last night.

Very soon, a figure crashed through the exit door that could be seen in the near distance. Jack followed a second later. A bright light flashed in the night as Jack shot at the fugitive, and both men clearly saw the person stumble as they raced out of the alley onto the main street, running in the direction of Bute Park, Jack hot on his heels.

“What's that light?” Jack asked when the video ended, and Ianto packed away his PDA.

“You shot them,” Ianto explained distractedly, as he marched to the entrance of the alley, starting to examine the rough brick wall of the building the fugitive had stumbled against after being hit by Jack's bullet. 

“I can shoot!?” Jack exclaimed in awed shock which distracted Ianto for a moment from his search for any traces of blood left on the brick stone. 

Wide-eyed and startled, he stared at Jack who only beamed at him with an excited smile. Ianto's pulse started racing in worry and fear. Jack's innocent glee tore at his heart, but at the same time, bitter dread started to consume him. It was getting worse. They had to find help for Jack very fast. He didn't want to imagine what could happen if Jack forgot everything, forgot hi...

Hastily, he swallowed down that thought together with the fear that had lodged itself inside his throat, and he threw Jack quick, shaky smile. “Yep,” he confirmed. “Very good as well.”

“Wow, that's awesome.” A dreamy smile curved Jack's lips, but Ianto didn't have the strength any more to stand that sight. 

He turned away to his task hastily, and fortunately, he quickly found what he was looking for.

“Here's blood,” he informed Jack out of habit, and pulled out a small scanner which he held closely over the blood spatters on the wall.

“It's alien blood,” he said when the hand-held scanner showed him its results of the analysis. “Tosh, I'll send you the results. Maybe you can identify the alien. Jack and I keep looking.”

“All right. Got them.”

Nodding with satisfaction, Ianto turned to Jack who had been suspiciously silent in the last couple of minutes. He came face to face with a wide-eyed Captain.

“What?” he asked uneasily.

“There's aliens?” Jack breathed in disbelief. “As in _aliens_ aliens?”

Oh shit. Ianto felt a headache coming up.

Nodding wearily, he grasped the sleeve of Jack's coat, and started dragging him away, using the scanner to trail the small spatters of blood showing them the way like bread crumps in the fairy tale.

While having his gaze fixed onto the scanner in his hands, Ianto reluctantly explained a gobsmacked Captain what it was they were doing for a living, a conversation he'd never thought he would have with Captain Jack Harkness. Ever.

“This... this is amazing!” Jack exclaimed, and stumbled after Ianto when they turned into Bute Park.

Ianto bit his lip in frustration. “Yes, it is.”

“Are they like in the movies?” Jack wanted to know, bounding up to Ianto like an excited puppy.

“Some are,” the younger man had to admit.

“Cool. And do we get to meet them? I mean, for real?”

Ianto grimaced. “More than we like.”

“I bet they have all kinds of wicked technology.”

“They do,” Ianto confirmed, and waved the scanner in his hand. 

Jack urged closer to Ianto, seeing the unremarkable device in a completely new light all of a sudden, and he reached out in an unconscious gesture so as if he wanted to touch it.

Sighing, Ianto pressed the scanner into Jack's hands, and let him carry it for the rest of their search. A quick look from the corner of his eye showed him how proud Jack was to hold the scanner, looking like a beaming boy scout on his first mission selling cookies in the neighbourhood.

Once more, Ianto trampled down the feeling of dread that made itself known.

“What's that noise?” Jack suddenly asked, and frowned at the scanner which had started beeping like mad all of a sudden.

“It means that it registers a larger amount of the substance it’s supposed to find. Keep behind me.” For good measure, he held out his arm to stop Jack from going any further, and for once, the Captain did as he was told. Ianto switched off the scanner in Jack's grip, and then drew his gun since it was very likely that they would encounter their alien behind the next group of shrubbery, very likely hurt and therefore even more dangerous. Carefully, he crept closer and closer, Jack obediently staying a few steps behind him.

Ianto breathed a sigh of relief when he rounded a bush, and, in a secluded spot protected by shrubbery, encountered the body sprawled out on the grass. Putting his gun away, Ianto knelt down beside the dead alien, checking it over with a quick glance. Cause of death was clearly the gunshot wound in its side, the grass underneath its torso was wet with dark red blood. On first glance, he looked human, but little tells, like the gills peeking out from beneath the collar told another story. Ianto didn't alert Jack to them because he wanted to get out of here as fast as he could. Jack could marvel all he liked back at the Hub.

He looked up at Jack again to tell him to get the SUV, but froze when he saw Jack's face. His wide gaze was fixed onto the dead body, and his normally tanned skin was white as a sheet.

“Hey, it's okay,” Ianto tried to soothe him, rising hastily to hurry at Jack's side. He rubbed his arm comfortingly. “It's okay.”

“It's just...” Jack swallowed heavily, unable to look away. “I've never seen a dead body before.”

Ianto didn't correct him in that assumption. Instead, he led the distraught Captain a few feet away until they were out of sight of the body.

“You get used to it,” he mumbled helplessly, and suddenly quite out of his depth. He'd never been good at consoling witnesses, but this was Captain Jack Harkness, for God's sake. He didn't need to be consoled, at least not because of something like this!

“You know what; you stay here, sit down onto that tree stub over there while I go and get the SUV as quick as I can,” Ianto suggested softly. 

Swallowing heavily again, Jack finally looked at him. His eyes showed unease. “Why can't I fetch the car?”

“Do you remember where it is?” Ianto countered gently. Jack shook his head.

“There you have it.”

Once more, wide, pale-blue eyes searched his. “I want to come with you,” Jack pleaded. “Don't leave me alone with the body.”

The sound of Jack's voice sounding so small and frightened tore at Ianto's heart, but there wasn't another choice. “Someone has to stay with the body,” he explained softly but with a certain commanding edge to his voice that brooked no argument. “Imagine what happens when someone finds it. The police swarming around here would only cause difficulties. Here.” He reached into Jack's coat, and drew out the Captain's wallet, showing him his Torchwood ID. “If someone should stumble upon the body unexpectedly, you tell them you're with Torchwood, show them your ID, and tell them to go away, we have it under control. Can you do that for me?”

Jack searched his face for a moment longer, but then, he drew himself up to his full height, suddenly looking determined, and he jutted his chin out stubbornly. “I will guard it until you're back. I won't disappoint you.”

Ianto smiled. “I know that. I wouldn't leave that task to anyone but you.” Reluctantly, he started to turn away. “I won't be long, promise. Just... just don't go away.”

After Jack nodded yes, looking like a man with a mission instead of the frightened creature he had been a few minutes ago at the sight of the body, Ianto marched away at a brisk pace, leaving Jack alone against his better judgement. On his way back to the SUV, he informed the others about their findings.

“How's Jack?” Unsurprisingly, the question came from Gwen.

“He's getting worse,” Ianto answered, the worry evident in his voice which he didn't try to hide any more in front of the others. “He has forgotten that aliens exist, and he almost freaked seeing the body.”

“And you left him alone?!” Gwen exclaimed. Ianto winced at the abuse of his eardrums.

“What would you have me do? I can't split myself in two, but I couldn't leave the body unsupervised.”

“Nobody's discovered it until now, it would have been save for a few minutes longer if you'd just taken him with you,” Gwen argued.

Ianto rolled his eyes while Owen growled a “Oh for heaven's sake, shut it, Gwen” which resorted in a shouting match between those two that Tosh fortunately managed to contain by quickly switching off Gwen and Owen's comms. They were just an annoying background noise when Tosh picked up the conversation again.

“You did the right thing,” she assured him. “Jack will be fine.”

Reassured a bit, even if not completely, Ianto quickened his pace.

It didn't take long to get the SUV, and park it as close to the park's entrance as he could. But when he returned to the body, Jack wasn't there anymore.

“Fuck!” he exclaimed with vigour. Agitated – close to having a panic attack, really –, he rounded the bushes, and ran out into the open, frantically looking around for Jack. 

Ianto sighed in profound relief when he immediately spotted the Captain not that far away. Jack just stood there, next to a bench, and stared into the distance.

“Jack!” Ianto ran up to him, grasping his shoulder as he slithered to a stop next to the lost-looking man.

Distraught, Jack flinched when Ianto almost crashed into him in his haste to get to him. The empty look in the older man's eyes scared Ianto almost to death, his heart skipped several beats. Only when Jack suddenly frowned as he scrutinised Ianto, and eventually uttered a hesitant “Ianto?”, did Ianto's heart start beating again.

“Why did you run away?” he wanted to know, instinctively checking Jack over if he was unharmed like you would have done with a lost child.

Jack shrugged. “I... There was this body.” He shuddered involuntarily, still unsettled. “I got scared. I didn't know why I was there.”

Ianto grimaced as he heard that, secretly swearing never to tell Gwen what had happened here. He gave Jack a shaky smile, and rubbed his arm soothingly more to calm himself down than Jack. “It's okay,” he tried to appease the distraught Captain. “I'm sorry I left you alone with the body. I won't do it again.”

Hesitantly, he reached for Jack's hand, and gently pulled him back into the direction they'd left the body. “Come. We have to take the body back to the Hub. It's fine,” he assured when he saw Jack flinch uneasily. “Really, it's harmless. But I need your help to carry it to the SUV.”

Jack nodded curtly, and followed Ianto back, still a little reluctantly.

He shuddered again when they stood before the dead alien, and the lost look as he stared down onto the still form returned. “I've never seen a dead body before,” he mumbled, repeating himself.

Ianto cringed, but didn't correct him this time either.

“You'll get used to it,” he said awkwardly, repeating his earlier words as well since he couldn't think of any other answer. Hastily he turned away, and started opening the heavy case with crime scene equipment he'd dropped the moment he'd started his frantic search for Jack. 

While Jack stood by, watching, Ianto quickly took some samples that he feared could be destroyed when the body was jostled into the body bag, and bagged a small device the alien had held in its cramped hand. His heartbeat accelerated. Could it be that this was responsible for Jack's unfortunate situation? He hoped so because then, surely they could work out how to reverse the process.

With Jack's help, he bagged the body, and they carried it back to the SUV, fortunately not encountering any noisy onlookers who would just have called the police at seeing two men carrying a body bag through Bute Park in the middle of the day. Granted, it was suspicious, but Ianto hadn't wanted to attract attention even more by driving the huge SUV straight through the park and to the site of the find. Not when he had Jack with him in that condition.

The drive back to the Hub was spent in an uneasy silence, and Ianto tried his utmost to repress the horrible thought that Jack got worse and worse. What would happen if he forgot himself completely?

Back in the underground garage, Ianto left the body in the SUV for the time being. His first priority was taking the device and the samples up into the Hub as well as getting Jack away from the body although the Captain already seemed to have forgotten all about the dead alien in the boot by now. He didn't seem so uncomfortable any more, and instead willingly followed Ianto even if the younger man had the suspicious thought that Jack didn't really know where he was. Well, at least he seemed to trust Ianto still.

When Gwen, as the newbie, had first set foot into the Hub, they'd all enjoyed themselves immensely at her expense, but seeing the wide-eyed wonder now in Jack's eyes just unhinged Ianto. The image of their larger-than-life leader staring around in awe at all the familiar gadgets and curiosities in the huge cavernous base was just fundamentally wrong.

Slowly, a beaming smile started to spread over Jack's features. “This is brilliant!” he exclaimed, turning around himself once to take it all in. “This is the secret underground base you told me about?”

“Yes.”

“Is there more?”

“Yeah, but let's leave that for another time,” Ianto hastily stopped any further excited sightseeing into the lower levels.

In that moment, the others had noticed their return, and advanced on them, and a sudden loud screech echoed through the air as well.

Jack ducked instinctively, and looked up to search for the origin of the noise.

“What is that?!”

“That's Myfanwy,” Ianto explained with a grimace. Their pet dinosaur couldn't have chosen a worse time for leaving her nest. The questions her sudden appearance would arouse...

“Is... is that a _dinosaur_?” Jack asked, staring after the pteranodon in awe.

“Yep, she is.”

“She's beautiful,” the immortal breathed, a look of longing in his blue eyes.

“Maybe I can introduce you later,” Ianto suddenly offered impulsively. He knew he'd said the right thing when Jack's wide eyes suddenly zoomed in on him. The joy of the prospect of meeting a live dinosaur was unmistakable in Jack's eyes.

Ianto felt lighter all of a sudden. Grave as the situation may be, it made him happy to see Jack so carefree and innocent for a few precious moments, without all the burdens and the horrors of his life and their job weighing him down.

Ianto's happiness was short-lived though when their colleagues decided to make themselves known after having witnessed the scene.

“Jack!” Gwen exclaimed, rushing up to Jack, and grasping his arm. “Are you okay?”

Jack looked at her, startled for a moment, but then, a beaming leer suddenly brightened up his face. “Well,” he drawled flirtatiously, “now I definitely am.”

He winked at Gwen who blushed promptly before he turned his attention to all the others. “Hi, and you are?”

Despite herself, Tosh giggled, and Owen threw his hands in the air, huffing in exasperated disgust. “I don't have to subject myself to this, I'm outta here.”

“Owen!” Ianto called after the retreating medic. “He's getting worse!”

That stopped Owen in his tracks. With a grimace, he turned around, checking Jack out quickly who in turn was madly flirting with Tosh and Gwen while – and Owen regretted even going there – his hand was somewhere behind Ianto suspiciously low. Helplessly, he sought Ianto's gaze. “I can't help him,” Owen explained, and the crushing pain he felt about that was evident in his eyes.

“Maybe you can.” Ianto held up the small containment box with the device in it that he'd found in the clutches of the dead alien. “Could be that the dead alien in the boot is responsible for Jack's condition, but I rather think it's this.”

Tosh immediately zoned in on the box, turning seriously again in the blink of an eye. She stepped closer, and eyed the device with interest. “I've never seen something like that before,” she frowned, but then tore her eyes away from the device again to look at Ianto. “I'll take it. Owen and I will start looking into it immediately. Let's hope it can help cure Jack.”

“Oh, that's sad,” Jack suddenly chimed in. “Maybe I can do something to help this Jack as well?”

The other team members stared at him with shock in their eyes, suddenly realising how grave the situation really was.

Clearing his throat nervously, Ianto placed his hand onto Jack's arm. “I'm sure we'll find something for you to do. Myfanwy's always happy about some attention.”

“Yeah, I'd like that,” Jack beamed, and allowed Ianto to lead him away.

For a couple of hours, Jack was kept busy with spoiling Myfanwy, but eventually, the pteranodon had had enough of the loving attentions, and simply flew up to her nest again, leaving Jack with nothing do to. Aimlessly, but with a fascinated gleam in his eyes, the Captain wandered around a bit, looking like a little boy in a candy store.

When he started flirting madly again with everybody though, and no calling Jack off or the occasional slap to the back of the head would have any effect, Ianto decided to sacrifice himself for his team mates, and keep the older man close by. He didn't want Gwen to get any funny ideas because of the flirting, and this way, he could prevent Jack from groping any of the others. The Captain'd sooner earn himself a bullet between the eyes from Owen as that the medic would allow that one more time.

Disappointed for a moment, Jack quickly pulled himself together though as he followed Ianto down into the Archives. For some reason, although all of these people were attractive, he felt drawn to this young man with the sarcastic wit and the sharp suits. Leaving the rest behind for the moment wasn't a hardship therefore. Maybe he could convince them later for a little orgy. He couldn't remember clearly, but he got the feeling that he liked orgies quite well.

“That's where you work?” Jack asked as soon as they were in the Archives.

“Yep.”

“Wow. Bit dreary.” Jack shrugged, stuffing his hands into his trouser pockets, and rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet while having a closer look around.

Ianto couldn't help but chuckle at that. “There's quite a few interesting things one can get up to down here.”

Jack must have heard the innuendo in Ianto's voice because suddenly, Ianto found himself crowded against one of the filing cabinets with a very interested immortal cocking a suggestive eyebrow at him. “Really?” Jack cooed, pressing close to Ianto. “It's always the quiet ones, hm.”

But before he could lean in to kiss Ianto, the younger man placed a determined hand onto Jack's  chest, and shoved him away.

“I refuse to have sex with you while you don't even know who I am,” he stated firmly, and glared at Jack menacingly. At least it was encouraging to see that Jack didn't seem to have forgotten sex altogether – a feat Ianto would have thought impossible anyway in Jack's case.

“Of course I know who you are,” Jack spluttered indignantly. 

Ianto just cocked an eyebrow expectantly.

“Ehm... well...” Jack frowned, and let his eyes rake over Ianto's face, intently searching for anything that would help him identify the man before him. He blanched all of a sudden, and the real horror in his eyes softened Ianto's demeanour somewhat.

“I'm Ianto,” he said quietly, and Jack, still distraught, nodded. He didn't even start another attempt to hit on Ianto by justifying his actions that sex would be quite alright now since he finally knew Ianto's name. He just stood there for a moment.

Swallowing heavily, the Captain then stumbled away, and collapsed into Ianto's office chair.

“It will be fine, Jack,” Ianto assured him softly, crouching down in front of the other man so that he could look him in the eyes. 

Haunted blue eyes met his. “But I... Who's Jack?”

Ianto drew in a sharp breath, ice-cold fear suddenly washing over him. Shakily, he patted Jack's knee reassuringly, and rose again.

His nerves on edge, Ianto looked around distractedly, taking in his work place, all the filing cabinets and the computer with thousands and thousands of information about alien devices and species, an incredible knowledge crammed between paper and hard drive, but nothing of that could help Jack at the moment. Their only chance, hopefully, was the device in Tosh and Owen's capable hands. God, he felt so helpless, so useless that he couldn't even contribute to the solution of the problem.

His hand trembling a bit, Ianto brushed his fingers through his hair in a nervous gesture, and looked at Jack again. The man was still slumped in Ianto's chair like a puppet with its string cut, his lost look turned onto the floor.

“How about some coffee?” he eventually asked. Surely, coffee would do both of them some good.

Uncertainly, Jack looked up at Ianto. Small traces of his earlier distress digging strained lines around his eyes.

“Okay,” he said, and accepted the hand Ianto offered him to pull him up. 

Midway through making coffee, the damn Rift alert blared through the cavernous Hub.

Cursing, Ianto caught Gwen's gaze who nodded.

Abandoning the coffee – what a waste! –, Ianto went to fetch his coat.

“We'll take care of it,” he called over to Tosh and Owen who were deeply immersed in figuring out the device – their top priority at the moment, all of them agreed.

He received twin grunts in response.

Satisfied, he went to look for Jack.

“Hey,” Ianto said, coming to a standstill behind the immortal who had found some distraction with one of Owen's computer games. The Captain barely acknowledged him, his sole concentration focussed on the game in front of him.

“I have to leave for a while,” Ianto explained, irrational unease sitting heavily in his guts because he didn't want to leave Jack. “It won't be long.”

Finally, Jack could pry himself loose from the screen, and he looked at Ianto. He threw him a quick, dazzling smile that held none of the warmth Ianto had come to associate with Jack's smiles directed at Ianto. Or any of them, really.

“Sure,” Jack said casually, letting his eyes rake over Ianto's form for a moment appreciatively, then over Gwen who had come to stand next to Ianto. Then, he dismissed them, and turned back to the game.

Next to him, Gwen made a noise like a hurt animal, and from the corner of his eye, Ianto saw the doe-eyed, hurt look in her eyes. He expected tears any moment now.

It was painful to admit, but if he had to be absolutely truthful, he felt like Gwen looked right that moment. Jack's dismissal  _hurt_ . 

Angrily, he pressed his lips together into a narrow line. He wasn't Gwen, he shouldn't take it personally. Because, rationally thinking – and, after all, Ianto always prided himself on being the only one doing that down here most of the time, apart from Tosh maybe –, he knew that it meant nothing, that Jack wasn't himself at the moment. Nonetheless, he, just like Gwen, couldn't help himself, or rather, his stupid heart couldn't help but feel crushed as Jack dismissed them both as if they were nothing more than some hot piece of ass to ogle, but not any more attractive or interesting than the other two that would remain here or, Heaven forbid, that stupid computer game.

Nodding curtly, Ianto forced himself to turn away from Jack, once more with an uneasy sense of foreboding sitting heavily in his gut. He got a hold of the sleeve of Gwen's leather jacket, and managed to pull her away, out of the Hub, and up to the SUV.

Ianto seethed when they were on their way back, his current driving style attesting to that.

Following up that alert had been a waste of time. The only thing they had encountered at the coordinates the computers had spat out had been some broken piece of junk which now sat in a containment box in the boot.

He should have stayed with Jack because that nagging feeling that something was wrong wouldn't go away. He supposed he would only calm down when he saw his lover with his own two eyes, making sure that he was completely alright.

He really, really had to stop that mother-hen worrying. Even in his altered state, Jack was still Jack, and could take care of himself.

But... that was the crux of the matter, wasn't it? Was he still Jack? And would he still be Jack if they didn't find a cure very soon?

Still fuming over the whole situation at large, Ianto took two steps at once on the staircase back down into the Hub, leaving Gwen to bring the containment box or not, for all that he cared.

He found Owen and Tosh in almost the same hunched over positions they had left them in earlier. Ianto's face fell. It seemed they were no closer to a solution than before.

Shrugging off his coat, he was just attempting to throw it over the back of a chair in an uncharacteristic messy fashion when, while his eyes swept around to look for Jack, he came face to face with yellow and green post-it notes on every available surface. Frowning, he cocked his head.

“Owen?”

“What?” came the distracted answer from the lab the doctor and Tosh had settled down in. 

“What's with all those post-its?”

At that, Owen raised his head to look around before he focussed in on Ianto and Gwen. “Ehm, he got on my nerves. Asked questions every other minute, some even twice or more times.”

Rolling his eyes, Ianto dismissed the doctor and his inane ideas quickly in favour of tracking down his elusive lover. Jack was nowhere to be seen though.

His breathing speeding up with sudden worry, Ianto rushed around frantically to check in every corner of the main Hub. But Jack wasn't there.

“Where is he?!” he demanded, and came to a slithering halt close to the lab.

“He was playing some of Owen's computer games,” Tosh answered distractedly while squinting into the interior of the device, a delicate screwdriver poised in her right hand as if ready to strike.

“Not anymore,” Ianto snapped, stemming his hands into his hips impatiently.

Confused, Tosh and Owen looked up from their work, and took a look around so as if expecting to spot Jack regardless of what Ianto had said.

“Doesn't matter,” he said irritably. “I'll find him. You see that you figure out that thing.”

“Yes, boss,” Owen sneered back, but nonetheless bend back over the device.

With new dread sitting heavy in his stomach, Ianto stormed away, intend on finding Jack. Gwen had been faster; she was already at her computer to locate Jack's heat signature in the Hub.

“There,” she said. “He's on level three, near the Weevil cells.”

Nodding Ianto spun around.

“I'll come with you.”

“No,” he snapped back at her.

“You can't tell me what to do,” Gwen bristled. “Why can't I come with you, and help you calm him down?”

Ianto whirled around to her again, getting right into her face. “Just leave it, Gwen,” he hissed, his wide, wild eyes boring into her. “Just... let me...”

Gwen, her own dark eyes wide as saucers, stared at him, a little shocked at his forcefulness. But then, her shoulders suddenly slumped when she seemed to get that Ianto had to do this alone for some reason that she felt wasn't her business. “Okay,” she relented meekly. “I'll... go and help the others.”

Nodding curtly, Ianto turned towards the stairs to the lower levels. He'd lost too much time already.

“Jack?” he called out when he hastened down the stairs that led to the cells on level three. There was no answer. He didn't try again though since Jack probably wouldn't react to his own name anyway. 

Grumbling under his breath as he pushed open the heavy metal door to the cell corridor, Ianto suddenly reared back in shock when a Weevil lurched at him, its sharp, snapping teeth narrowly missing Ianto.

Panting heavily, Ianto drew his weapon which, fortunately, he still had with him from their retrieval. Without thinking, he pumped three bullets into the Weevil's chest.

With a pitiful groan, the creature crumbled on the spot all of a sudden. It remained completely still after that. Ianto breathed a sigh of relief. Although Weevils were incredibly hard to kill, one of Ianto's bullets must have hit it right through the heart.

Once more making sure the Weevil was dead, Ianto scrambled over the body. His weapon held tight in both hands lest he encountered more Weevils, numbing fear threatened to overwhelm him as he carried on purposefully through the cell corridor.

There, he saw confirmed what he had feared already. One of the cells – and thank God only one – was wide open.

Holstering his gun again, he dashed through the door at the other end of the corridor. From the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a smear of dark red glistening on the dirty wall.

He almost stumbled over Jack only a few metres into the gloomy corridor on the other side.

“Oh no,” he winced as he spotted Jack's huddled form.

The other man flinched when he saw Ianto, and he pressed himself against the protective wall behind him, and curled in on himself even tighter.

“It's okay,” Ianto assured him, trying to sound soothing and non-threatening while calming down his own thunderstruck nerves.

He crouched in front of Jack for a few seconds, not daring to come any closer, while the older man looked at him, his eyes wide with terror and pain.

“W-what...” he croaked, but his voice deserted him, and instead, a painful groan tumbled past his lips.

“Shh, it's gone. I promise. It can't hurt you anymore.” 

Carefully, Ianto edged a little closer to Jack, his hands held out in front of him to show Jack he was no danger to him.

“Who are you?” Jack whimpered, and searched Ianto's face in the gloomy light, desperately trying to spot something familiar in the other man's face that could ground him. But this time, there was no spark of recognition at all.

“My name's Ianto. I'm your friend.”

Hesitating for only a moment, Jack finally accepted Ianto's explanation, and leaned slightly forward so as if seeking Ianto's closeness.

Ianto took that as permission to bridge the distance between them. Slowly, he placed his hand onto Jack's shoulder, the immortal's skin ice-cold and clammy even through the fabric of his shirt. Ianto couldn't see much, but the almost overpowering stench of metallic blood told him enough. Jack didn't have long now.

“What happened?” he asked softly while edging even closer so he could wrap Jack in a soothing embrace. With a shuddering sigh of relief, the Captain sank into the warmth of Ianto's arms. 

“There were these c-creatures,” he explained, his breathing becoming more laboured with every second as he fought to stay awake. “I've never seen something like that before.” He shook his head against a sudden bout of dizziness. Weakly, Jack held up his arm sporting his wrist band. “I got curious. There's all kinds of buttons in that thing.”

Ianto cursed himself that none of them had had the common sense to take Jack's wrist band.

A violent shudder suddenly wrecked Jack's whole body, but Ianto wasn't sure if it was from blood loss, pain, or the memories assaulting Jack. Probably all of it.

“Suddenly, the door opened, and that creature attacked me. I escaped through here.”

His last words became slurred, and he fell silent.

Shuffling around, Ianto settled down on the cold, dusty floor, and pulled Jack between his legs, tightly cradling the weakening body to give him as much warmth and comfort than he could. Even in this darkness, Ianto tried to hold back his tears as he tried to be strong for Jack. He could fall apart after.

“I'm scared,” Jack suddenly whispered, his voice now nothing more than a broken croak. 

“I know,” Ianto murmured, and pressed a kiss against Jack's temple. 

“I don't know who I am. I'm lost, Ianto.”

Ianto flinched involuntarily when suddenly, cold, wet fingers touched his cheek in a weak attempt for more bodily contact.

“I don't want to die not knowing who I am.”

He couldn't hold back the tears any more, no matter what he did. Pulling Jack closer until his face rested in the crook of Ianto's neck, the younger man buried his face in Jack's hair, close to his ear.

“You're Captain Jack Harkness. And you're the bravest, strongest, and most honourable man I've ever met,” he whispered fiercely. Ianto drew in a shuddering breath before he could continue; he felt as if his emotions might choke him any second now. A garbled laugh ripped itself free from his throat. “And you're the most infuriating man I've ever met.”

That earned him a weak chuckle at least.

He pressed even closer, his lips now touching Jack's ear. “And you're the most beautiful, human and caring being in this universe. And I love you. Always.”

Another shudder wrecked Jack's body, and Ianto felt his body getting heavier in his arms.

“Thank you.”

Ianto only heard the words because Jack was so close. Then, everything went still.

A sudden sob Ianto realised came from him was the only sound in the otherwise eerily silent corridor. He didn't hold back any more, and allowed another to escape, and another, all the while cradling Jack's broken body tightly so as if he had died for good this time.

The sudden loud gasp ripping through the silence after what felt like eternity was like music to Ianto's ears. His relief though was short-lived when he then had his hands full of flailing Captain.

Making soothing noises, Ianto tried his best to calm the panicking man down.

“What happened?!” Jack cried, his voice high-pitched and full of panic. “I died!”

“You're fine!” Ianto tried to make himself heard over Jack's loud breathing and his terrified cries. He kept up with mumbling soothing nonsense until his throat felt raw from talking and crying, but at least, Jack finally calmed down. He went completely still in Ianto's arms, and the only sounds he made were the occasional distressed whimpers.

“I died,” he whispered again.

“It's okay,” Ianto assured though he felt everything but okay. He felt so inadequate since telling Jack it was okay over and over was the only thing he could do at the moment. His eyes already itching with the salt of old tears already shed, a few more tears of helplessness escaped them; obviously, dying hadn't had any positive effect on Jack's condition. They were back where they had started.

“I'm scared,” Jack said in a small voice that tore at Ianto's heart, and he could smell Jack's fresh tears. “I don't know what's going on here.”

“I know.” He pressed a firm kiss against Jack's temple. “I'll explain in a bit. Just try to calm down for now.”

Gently, Ianto started to rock the distraught man in his arms, but realised that the calming gesture was as much for his as for Jack's benefit so he could finally come to terms with what he felt was Jack's most horrible death so far, simply because they'd both been so helpless and scared.

For now, Jack accepted Ianto's comfort, melting into his arms trustingly, even if Jack didn't even know who Ianto was or who he was himself.

Owen found them like that.

Ianto only realised the presence of another when a throat was cleared softly. Startled, he looked up with wide eyes to find Owen standing next to them, the light from the cell corridor spilling through the open door into the darkness blinding Ianto for a second.

For once, there was no mockery or contempt on the doctor's face. He didn't say anything to finding them down here like that nor did he comment on the dead Weevil he must have stumbled over. For a moment, his observant gaze wandered over the blood drenching Jack's shirt, the finger-shaped smears on Ianto's cheek, and he took in the shell-shocked expression in the two men's eyes.

“We've figured it out,” he just said softly, ensuring he had caught Ianto's interest with those words. “Come up so we can test it.”

They looked at each other, a whole lot of complicated emotions swirling between them, but none acknowledged any of them.

Eventually, Ianto nodded. “We'll be up in a few.”

“So,” Jack stated, hooking his thumbs into his braces. “That was interesting.”

Ianto snorted at that. “It really was.”

Carefully, he eyed the Captain, then threw a quick glance in the direction the others had vanished to check if they were truly alone. “Are you really okay?”

“Yes,” Jack stated, playing down the whole situation with a nonchalant shrug that hadn't Ianto fooled for even one minute. “My memories are complete again.”

Biting his lower lip, Ianto nodded. It seemed that both of them would steadfastly ignore what had happened at the end when it had all deteriorated into some kind of surrealistic horror movie. Maybe if Jack had some time to comprehend everything that had happened, he would talk to Ianto about it. And maybe Ianto would be able to talk about it as well then, how scared and helpless he had been. So heartbroken to see Jack like that without being able to help him.

Breathing in deeply through his nose, he straightened up, determined to let  _that_ aspect of their eventful day rest for the moment.

“You looked really happy,” he said instead, his voice quiet and unsure, but he had to get that off his chest. “At the beginning. Discovering it all anew; Myfanwy, the Hub, aliens...”

“I was,” Jack nodded, shrugging nonchalantly.

Ianto's face fell somewhat, despondency and sudden disappointment sitting heavily inside his stomach like spoiled food. “I've never seen you like this,” he blurted out. “Not even with m...” He trailed off, biting his lower lip self-consciously. He'd already said too much...

He startled when suddenly, Jack caressed his cheek.

“You make me happy, Ianto,” he simply said, and with an uncharacteristically, awkwardly watery smile, Ianto believed him. Sighing in relief, he leaned into Jack's touch.

**End**


End file.
